Ever since I discovered YouTube, I have been fascinated by commentary YouTubers. It started with the classic reaction-style videos, creators such as LaurenZside or Cody Ko. Since I was little, I loved their unserious video format, the way that they were able to say exactly what I was thinking. At the time, I thought that this was the highest form of entertainment the internet had to offer.
When I was 10 years old, I discovered Danny Gonzalez and Drew Gooden. During the summer of 2020, I honestly had nothing better to do and spent almost all of my time watching their videos. Gonzalez’s videos were mostly unserious, reviewing bad movies, strange products and internet absurdities. Gooden’s were also less serious but, as time went on, he began to cover more real topics. I remember watching one of his videos structured around the silly topic of bad products and how through this video, he unexpectedly shifted into a thoughtful discussion about mental health, while simultaneously making it accessible enough for 12-year-old Mia to understand.
The more I got into Gonzalez and Gooden’s content, the more I realized how intentionally they used their platforms. They understood that most of their audience consisted of teenagers and younger viewers, and because of that, they worked to present complicated topics in ways their audiences could genuinely comprehend. Their videos were funny and engaging, but were also teaching viewers how to think critically about media, trends and the world around them.
Getting deeper into their channels, I kept wishing for more content like theirs, and discovered their friend Kurtis Conner. Conner’s content evolution seemed to mirror my own growth online, starting with shorter videos on topics like Noah Centineo’s cringey tweets and weird One Direction fanfiction, but increasingly getting more serious. He started to cover important topics like the dangers of alcoholism while reacting to jokey short-form videos. One of the first videos of his that I watched was on the humorous absurdity of gendered products. Although the video was comedic, Conner highlighted how normalized gendered marketing had become and how it subtly influences everyday life. After that, I began noticing gendered advertising everywhere. What initially felt like a funny commentary video had completely shifted the way I viewed marketing.
As time went on, whether the reason is the world itself became more serious or I was growing up enough to recognize it, Gonzalez, Gooden and Conner put out increasingly serious content. Like I said, they understand their audiences well and I think that they recognized that their viewers were getting older and could handle less humorous content. One of my favorite videos on the entirety of YouTube and one that I recommend to anyone who will listen is Gooden’s video called The Future of TV is Bleak. Gooden touches on the topic of AI taking over the world of film and television in such a surprisingly thoughtful and emotional way that made the issue feel so immediate and personal that the first time I watched the video I forgot that this was the same YouTuber I had just watched talk about low-budget products.
These creators have also shown that commentary can become a tool for meaningful action. Conner, for example, created a video discussing internet pranks in 2019. One of the pranks had to do with domestic violence, and so Conner turned that video into a discussion about domestic violence and donated all of the proceeds to the National Domestic Violence Hotline while keeping the mood of the video still lighthearted for his audience. Videos that many people dismiss as commentary are often capable of spreading awareness to millions of young viewers who may never otherwise engage with these topics in a soft, easy to understand and meaningful way.
Today, I still keep up with commentary YouTubers mainly through the three of them and one named Brooke Sharks whom I discovered more recently. I have also become a huge fan of more traditionally educational content, and I recommend the channel Lemmino to anyone I can. However, I do not think that I would have discovered appreciated channels like that without first developing an interest in commentary videos. Commentary Youtubers taught me that education does not always have to look academic or formal to be meaningful.
Many people dismiss commentary content as lazy, unintelligent or low-effort, assuming it is simply creators repeating obvious opinions for a paycheck. However, I think that commentary videos can be one of the most effective ways to educate younger audiences because they make complicated or serious topics feel approachable. Through humor, relatability and personality, commentary creators like the ones mentioned are able to introduce their viewers to conversations about things like mental health, sexism, AI, domestic violence and countless other issues that might feel otherwise far away or inaccessible.
